Lucky Phil

At the risk of being repetitive, here is the final product. The seat fitment and sidecovers finalised,the rack supports removed and everything bolted down and fitted up in the final position. The only tasks remaining are the frame to airbox breather tube for which I have some alloy AN fittings coming for, the tank cap drain line for which I have sourced an accessible joiner to make tank removal easier and hook up the oil pressure gauge for the initial start. I was hoping to maybe get a bin. file from Paul Minnaert before I did the first start. He asked me to let him know when I was ready to fire it up but he's currently in serious condition with the Corona virus so he has bigger things to concern himself with naturally. Hoping he's doing better,anyone have updates on how he's doing?. It would be nice to have a Centauro specific bin. file for the initial start so when he's over this period of illness he may be able to assist with that or something closer than the std V11 map. Here's what started this journey for me. Sorry but I've never been able to find a better image of this bike but I have had it on an A4 print in my garage for years and dreaming. I dont know what muffler hangers he's used but I wouldn't mind knowing as I quite like the higher mounting. Ciao

You can write 2020 off I think Pete. cant agree more with regards to the Millennial attitude. I've been ready a biography on Churchills life, it's weighty tomb. It's sobering to considering the suffering and deprivation people suffered through much of the 20th century not to mention the wholesale slaughter of over 100,000,000 people. It's quite sobering to consider what our parents and grandparents went through in their lives and it provides my generation with a baseline when this sort of thing happens. Not sure my kids (17,21 and 32) are quite so philosophical about the present situation though, they've never known a time of wide spread deprivation. Mentioning to them that walking into a supermarket and having 50 choices of just about everything in there wasn't the world I grew up in when I was young does't seem to register with them, or that 25 different variations in a cup of bought coffee is something that maybe you can happily and meaningfully live without. I'm just an old duffer apparently, until something breaks of course,lol. Ciao

Yep. From someone thats bought a few salvaged bikes at Auction the 2 major moments are string lining the wheels and the first start up. Later model EFI bikes with a tip over sensor relieves some of the later stress. Ciao

The motor needs to be removed and completely stripped and most importantly the cause needs to be identified. If this is a crash salvage bike then it could well have lay on it's side running for some time without oil pressure and that's taken out the big ends. See the V11 Daytona project thread, there are a lot of bottom end images there and the crank/rods/main bearings/oiling system and sump are the same. Ciao

Pull the selector cover off and do the shift enhancement procedure listed in the How to section and replace the shifter spring. Most motorcycle gearboxes struggle with what you have described though. They need to be rotating for shifting to work effectively. Ciao

Very close docc, just waiting on some fittings to come in the post. Ciao

Something interesting I found for those that experience AN fitting leaks such as the oil cooler fittings due to damage (not cracking) Ciao

Yes I've bought quite a few Dayton engine parts from Paul and was about to ask him for any EFI mapping files and info for the V11/Daytona project. Always helpful and willing to share. Hopefully he recovers ok from this horrid disease along with others affected. The nicest part of the motorcycling community for me has always been the terrific people it brings you together with. The riding and wrenching are just the side benefits. Ciao

Yes Pete, here. Ciao

Best wishes to you Paul,fingers crossed for you mate. Ciao

Well that's the base line to start proceedings. Ciao

Ok so I ordered some Orings. My first preference was 10.3 x 2.4 Viton but they were special order at $3 something dollars each min 25 which would be ok except this is proof of concept so I went with 10X2.5 vitons. I'll need to widen the o ring grooves as well because they are too narrow even for the std orings. I fitted or tried to fit one of the std rings on the plunger after being in fuel and it was hopeless way too big everywhere, no wonder they generally hold fuel but you cant operate them. I also thought bugger it and had an attempt at modifying the unit to my preferred design. I slotted the plunger by hand with a tiny cutter and a porting tool. Turned out better than I expected and works perfectly. So now the stop is internal and the unit can be serviced. I'll use a 4 mm stainless grub screw with a hex socket instead of the steel button head in the image which I had laying around. Some blue loctite on that will seal it and prevent loosening. Seriously someone like Chuck with his skills and machinery could do this mod a lot better and with greater accuracy in under an hour. Ciao

The issue there is that the plastic strainer threads into the body ID. Do you mean a stop that somehow uses the top surface of the body on the tank side? If so you would need to leave the strainer off and you would also lose inlet flow. I thought of a better solution initially but you need a Mill. Drill a 6 mm hole in the body opposite the outlet and use a screw with a 3mm spigot/projection machined at the end maybe 4 or 5 mm long that engages a 3 mm wide x 2 mm deep x 6 mm long slot machined into the plunger minor diameter. Insert the screw with the spigoted end which engages the slot in the plunger and you have your down stop and a guide to prevent the plunger rotating and you lose no flow at all. Its then dismantleable and all thats needed is a drop of sealer on the stop screw. My only real issue is machining the slot in the plunger. Ciao Edit, sorry just saw your modification in the image. Good idea but as above serious flow issues and loss of the strainer.

This is getting traction here in the last 5 or so years. The artists generally use local people in the images. I like street art esp with a Guzzi parked in front. Must do a trip. http://siloarttrail.com/home/ Ciao

Haven't thought about the final assembly yet but that's an idea. My Aldi seals are a little small on the CS at 2.1 mm so I'm going to order some 2.4 and 2.5 Viton seals this week and test them out. Ciao

Some of you may be aware of my ongoing frustration with these things. Briefly I've had one that refused to close off and another that has leaked when in the open position. Time to investigate. I suspected that the issue was junk seals and it turned out I was correct. I carefully removed the crimped section of the aluminium operating knob so I could screw it off the body and remove the internal plunger. The seals were toast which was causing the leaking in the open position. Bearing in mind that this thing gets used once in a blue moon the seals shouldn't have an issue really. So seals removed measured up and left in fuel overnight. I also tested a seal from an elcheapo kit I bought at the local Aldi store for comparison. No idea what the Aldi seal is made of but it was almost an identical size to the original. The first image shows the two seals after 24 hours in fuel ( the originals hadn't seen fuel for a week or so) As you can see the original has swelled a lot, around 1 mm in dia. So if your manual tap is difficult to open and shut and needs pliers to do so here's your reason. Garbage non fuel compatible seals. My cheap control seal is fine and hasn't swelled at all. This sort of thing drives me nuts, to save pennies they use rubbish seals and to compound the issue they aren't replaceable.......until now,hopefully. The difference in the seal sizes is quite obvious after 24 hrs in fuel. So what we need is Viton or FKM seals which I suspect will need to be 10 mm ID X 2.4 mm CS. I'll confirm this soon. The problem is what to do now with the the tap and its lack of open stop since we have removed the crimped section from the knurled nut. The issue for me is the lack of equipment. I've got plenty of nice ideas but dont have a mill which would allow me to do it properly. What I came up with is in the following image. I drilled and tapped the plunger for a 4 mm grub screw that can be inserted into its hole through the tap outlet. This grub screw when installed now forms the down stop for the plunger internally by it striking the inner bottom edge of the outlet hole replacing the crimped section of the aluminium knurled nut. The only issue I had was that I drilled and tapped the plunger hole about 1 mm too high which caused issues when the tap was closed. I resolved this by opening up the throat of the outlet port up near the closed seal face. Downside? a reduction in outlet area but i doubt it would be an issue as the inlet and filter screen are smaller than the tap outlet spigot ID.Next time I'd drill and tap a 6mm access hole on the tap body opposite the outlet port and make the 4mm hole in the plunger all the way through. I'd then have a 4mm stainless grub screw with the stop end turned down to 2 mm and it would be accessed through the 6 mm body screw from the opposite side. This would be much neater and minimise the loss of outlet area. The 6 mm access screw hole would need to be sealed with some thread sealer but the tap could be easily pulled apart for seal replacement and servicing.Note here only 1 seal is fitted to the plunger. I give this idea to the greater Guzzi community and forego retiring in luxury on the Caribbean on the obvious fiscal benefits I could derive from patenting etc. Ciao

Hammertone? ( brand name) That's what its known as over here. Painted my first toolbox which I made as a first year apprentice at training college with it. Same colour as well. Ciao